JAL pullout: End of an era

Japan Airlines’ decision to suspend flights to Saipan marks the end of an era for tourism in the CNMI, a local industry leader said.

Lynn Knight, president of the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, noted that JAL was not simply an air service provider to the CNMI, but a major investor in the Commonwealth.

“This is really the end of a chapter in our tourism industry. We’re losing more than just the flights here,” Knight said in reaction to JAL’s official announcement that it would cease operation of its regular flights to Saipan starting Oct. 4, 2005.

Knight recalled that, at one point, the airline ran eight businesses in the CNMI, including Hotel Nikko Saipan and the La Fiesta Shopping Complex, which has been sold to the CNMI government.

“JAL has always been a huge investor in the Commonwealth. I still remember the grand opening of Hotel Nikko and La Fiesta, the JAL executives coming in and out of this island, and all the JAL executives and staff that worked here. So when I think of the pullout, I think about the history of the partnership between JAL and the CNMI,” said Knight.

Marianas Visitors Authority board chair David Sablan expressed the same sentiments. He said he was saddened by the news, even though it was expected.

Sablan added that, with the formal notice finally out, the CNMI should now focus on finding alternatives to JAL’s flights. He reported that the MVA board discussed on Thursday a plan to hire a consulting firm to identify other carriers that might be interested in flying to Saipan.

“I’m quite sure that there are some airlines willing to do that; it’s just a matter of identifying them. Once this [consulting] company is finished with its work, hopefully before the end of this year, we will approach them [airlines] with the help of the administration,” Sablan said.

For her part, Knight said the hotel organization was willing to work with the CNMI government and the rest of the tourism industry in finding ways to recover the lost seats capacity that would result from JAL’s pullout.

Knight stressed that timing was critical, given that the Commonwealth now has only two months before it loses 182,000 airline seats capacity because of JAL’s decision.

“We have to really go out there and reach out to the other airlines. I realize there’s a problem with airline slots out of Narita. We have to keep working on that issue, but at the same time, we have to look at other cities in Japan that we can develop as a tourism market,” she said.

As promised, JAL issued an official notice on the planned pullout before the month of July ended.

The announcement released last Friday, rendered in both Japanese and English, read: “Today, July 29, 2005, the JAL Group has decided to suspend its Japan-Saipan route (Narita-Saipan, Kansai-Saipan).”

JAL indicated Oct. 4, 2005 as the effective date of the pullout, but provided no other information about the flight suspension, including its plan regarding a possible charter service to Saipan once the scheduled flights are cancelled.

In a phone interview, JAL-Saipan manager Kunio Tomita said the local office itself had just been informed of the final decision of the airline’s top management.

Tomita said that, although the pullout was now official, the airline had yet to make definite plans for the Saipan office beyond Oct. 4. Charter flights are probable, but remain under discussion, he said.

Currently, JAL provides Saipan daily DC10 flights from Narita and daily Boeing 767 flights from Kansai. The two flights provide a combined capacity of 182,000 seats annually.

About 50 percent of the Japanese visiting the CNMI take JAL’s service.
Japan is the Northern Marianas’ primary tourism market, comprising 70 percent of the total arrivals to the islands.